Resting place of Mathew Carey

Mathew Carey was an Irish-born American publisher and economist who lived and worked in Philadelphia. He entered the bookselling and printing business in Ireland in 1775, and at the age of seventeen published a pamphlet criticizing dueling. This publication was quickly followed by another work criticizing the severity of the Irish penal code, and another criticizing Parliament. As a result, the British House of Commons threatened him with prosecution and Carey fled to Paris in 1781. There he met Benjamin Franklin who took him to work with him at his printing office. Upon Carey's arrival in Philadelphia, Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette gave him $400 to establish himself, and he used this money to set up a new publishing business and a book shop, establishing:

• The Pennsylvania Herald (1785)
• Columbian Magazine (1786), and
• The American Museum

None of these ventures proved very profitable, although the American Museum became the first American periodical to treat American culture as rich and original instead of a poor imitation of Great Britain's. Carey printed the first American version of the Douay–Rheims Bible, popularly known as the Carey Bible, in 48 weekly installments, which subscribers could then have bound. It was the first Roman Catholic version of the Bible printed in the United States. Carey also printed numerous editions of the King James Version. In 1794-1796, Carey published America's first atlases. His 1802 map of Washington, D.C., was the first to name the stretch of land west of the United States Capitol as the "Mall". Carey is buried here at Old St Mary’s Church.